PK Rematch: Results May Vary

Kirou was currently in his human form, walking along the trail going west from Elderwood Village. His eyebrows were currently furrowed as he was deep in thought. He's been outside of the village for roughly half an hour now, and he could feel a few sets of eyes on him.

He was sure those eyes have been on him since he left town but he ignored it since he attributed it to everyone being curious about his different set of armor. Now that half an hour has passed and he could still feel a few sets of eyes on him, Kirou decided to take care of it before he entered a truly dangerous situation. That and he found it annoying to have someone watching his every move.

Kirou walked off the main road and entered the forest. During his trip, he made sure to remove a set of chains from his inventory and equipped it, with it wrapping around one of his arms. After walking for another few minutes, Kirou finally walked to the center of an open area before he turned around to face the direction he traveled from.

Kirou waited a minute to see if those following him would make a move. Since they were still hesitating after being given such an amazing invitation, Kirou decided to call out to them.

"I know you guys are there. Will you come to me on your own or should I go to you?" A smile formed on Kirou's face after he spoke those words. Immediately after, a group of players appeared from the path Kirou had traveled.

The group contained about two dozen players. There were at least two players for each of the basic classes and the group contained both Lycans and Dwarfs. While looking over the group members, Kirou noticed a few familiar faces. It was the party that Hidden Bow had abandoned when they tried to attack Kirou in the Northern Swampland a few hours back.

While Kirou was observing the group, the group members were observing Kirou as well. At the back, a Lycan equipped with a greatsword was speaking to the party members that Kirou recognized, "You sure this is the guy that wiped out your party, Blade Fiend?"

Being addressed by the Lycan warrior, Blade Fiend nodded with a serious expression on his face before speaking up, "Yes, leader. He's the one that killed all of us. He was using his 'Lycan Transformation' when he fought us but I can recognize those weapons of his anywhere."

The greatsword wielding Lycan warrior now addressed as the leader then walked out from the group and stopped ten meters away from Kirou. Kirou raised an eyebrow when he saw the Lycan warrior approach but he made no effort to move in response. Once he stopped, the Lycan warrior gave Kirou another once over before speaking.

"I heard you took care of my men a few hours ago back in the northern swamplands. I'm here for an answer on the subject." After saying this, he took his greatsword from his back and jammed it into the ground before him, giving off an imposing impression.

Looking at his actions, Kirou inwardly shook his head at this warrior's actions. Did he really think that Kirou would be intimidated by this little display, along with the large group he had behind him? Kirou then released a sigh before a smile made its way on his face and then said, "What do you want me to say? One of your boys had the audacity to try and sneak attack me so I made sure both he and the rest of his party understood the consequences of that action."

Hearing his words caused the faces of the members of the party that originally attacked Kirou to heat up in shame. The other members of the group tried their best to stifle their laughing while giving them disparaging looks. Seeing those looks caused the original five to feel both shame and anger.

All while this was going on, the leader still looked at Kirou with a calm expression. Eventually, he opened his mouth and said, "Good. Very good. Since you can speak like that then you should understand what I'm about to do."

"And what is it that you plan to do, Mr. Leader?" Kirou asked this with a raised eyebrow after hearing the leader's words.

"Remove your gear, toss it to me and allow my squad to kill you and we'll end this conflict here. Otherwise, don't blame me for being ruthless." After saying this, the leader gave the group a signal, prompting them to start surrounding Kirou.

Kirou saw the group moving to surround him but he made no move in response. Instead, he had a carefree expression on his face. Kirou only spoke after all the members of the opposed party seemingly got in their respective places, "And what if I say no? What are you gonna do about it?"

Hearing Kirou ask this question after his party had Kirou surrounded caused the leader to start laughing. After getting it out of his system, the leader spoke with a malevolent expression on his face, "It's quite simple really. I, Phantom Fiend, and the members of my Fiend Guild will kill you every time we see you starting today. We will keep this up until you end up deleting your character and leave this game. What do you think about that?"

It was now Kirou's turn to laugh. It started slowly at first but then ten seconds later it had evolved into a full-blown laughing fit. Seeing that Kirou was laughing at his words caused the now identified leader, Phantom Fiend's face to grow dark.

'It's been a long time since someone has dared to laugh at the guild leader's words like this. Looks like this guy is another lost cause.' Those were the thoughts of Blade Fiend and the other members of the group currently surrounding Kirou.

After a good minute of laughter, Kirou finally calmed down and his face returned to normal. It was only then that Kirou addressed Phantom Fiend's words, "Thanks for that. I've been needing a good laugh for a while now. Anyways, I've made my choice."

"Oh? And what choice would that be?" Phantom Fiend had a very dark expression on his face when he asked this. If looks could kill, then Kirou would currently be minced into pieces before being fed to a wild wolf. 'Regardless of whatever choice you make, I'll make sure to hunt you down until you quit this game.'

"I choose option three." When Kirou said this, there was a calm expression on his face. Contrary to that, however, was that his eyes were currently lit ablaze.

"And what would that be?" Phantom Thief asked through gritted teeth.

"It's quite simple, really. Option three is..." Kirou vanished after saying this. This prompted the members of the Fiend Guild, Phantom Thief included, to search around the area for Kirou. While they were searching around, however, they heard a voice echoing all around them and it sounded quite fierce, "Option three is where all of you die right here and now."

A scream was immediately heard following the end of Kirou's words. When the other guild members looked, they noticed that Slash Fiend was currently missing. It was only when they checked the party and guild menus did they realize that the missing Slash Fiend had just died. This was less than twenty seconds after he went missing.

***********************

Phantom Fiend was currently in a bad mood. The reason for his bad mood has to do with the problem he was currently facing. That problem currently goes by the name of Kirou.

It was supposed to be a simple job. Use the threat of his guild to force a somewhat strong player to hand over some strong items before killing him a few times. When the player was finally killed into submission, offer him a way out by inviting him to join the guild. He would be so grateful that he would then devote himself to serving the guild and the guild would receive another strong player. This is how it went for most of the pros that the guild has.

'Since that was the case, what made this time so different?' This was the thought that currently plagued Phantom Fiend's mind as he and his group of just fourteen remaining members were currently in a defensive formation as they were making their way out of the forest.

Initially, the group consisting of twenty-five members thought that they would be enough to surround and kill a single Lycan known as Kirou. Unfortunately for them, they didn't know what they were getting themselves into. When the original party of five told the leader just how Kirou toyed with them, he was angry that such a thing happened to members of his guild. His Guild!

The Fiend Guild was known for bullying other players, not the other way around. So instead of listening to how it all went down, Phantom Fiend immediately mobilized a group to track down that player while the rest prepared in the meantime. When they finally got word of the player returning to the village, Phantom Fiend had players monitor him and it was only when he left town once again did he decide to lead a force to take this player down.

Phantom Fiend has done this many times before so he thought this time would be the same. It wasn't until the conflict truly started that he began regretting his rash actions. It started when the player disappeared from within a group of twenty-five players. Up to this point Phantom Fiend still had no idea how Kirou escaped the encirclement, but he did find out how members of his group kept disappearing.

This was due to the use of a chain on Kirou's part. Phantom Fiend had no idea how Kirou did it, but regardless of where they were and what they were doing, whenever the chain made its presence known, another player would disappear within its grasp. And whenever the group managed to catch up with it, they would only find their missing member's body fading away in a mass of light while the chain was nowhere in sight.

This has happened multiple times before and now Phantom Fiend was growing numb towards the whole ordeal. That being said, he tried to cut his losses and just flee with the remainder of the group he brought with him. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't until they got close to leaving the forest along the trail they used that they realized that it was currently sealed off.

Chains, similar to the one that kidnapped members of his group, now blocked his path and by the time he looked around for another path, more chains started to seal off all routes, as if they were living snakes, effectively trapping them in an enclosed space.

Seeing this, Phantom Fiend truly had to do his best to not panic, or at the very least, not show it to his guild members. In his mind, one thought kept replaying over and over, 'Just who the hell did we offend?'

******************

While Phantom Fiend was trying his best not to have a nervous breakdown and the rest of the Fiend guild barely holding on, Kirou was currently looking down on them from a branch on one of the tall trees. His face was devoid of any emotion while his eyes were akin to a block of thousand-year ice; cold, unfeeling, and fraught with death.

Kirou was never a big fan of killing or starting slaughters, but that didn't mean he never partook or ended a few of them himself. During his old life, Kirou did his best to avoid people when he wasn't on assignment as he never wanted an excuse, no matter how justifiable, to start killing. His hands have been stained in the blood of many and quite a few times were as a direct result of others attacking him.

When it comes to killing, Kirou had a very simple but efficient rule for killing; outside of missions, if it can be avoided, then avoid it, but if it must happen, ensure to do so in a way that others fear your very existence. To Kirou, killing was anything but hard, but to ensure he had a quiet life, he made sure to master many unique methods and forms of killing, some of which actually bordered on the realms of the supernatural.

Let's take his use of chains, for example. This started out as a curious hobby of Kirou's from his younger days. He was always interested in a spider's ability to manipulate threads. He had researched and practiced many methods to achieve a similar result. It was only after many years of painstaking research did be accidentally run into a method while on a mission.

He was tasked to kill members of a cult. While assassinating them, he eventually came against one who had the ability to manipulate weapons freely. Instead of killing this one right away, Kirou spent some time interrogating the man, all so he could learn to do the same. Kirou tried reasoning with him at first but the man was stubborn, so Kirou held nothing back in his torture. After a full week, the man eventually broke and gave Kirou the knowledge he wanted.

Unfortunately for Kirou, the man intentionally left out a crucial detail on the matter and it wasn't until years later Kirou learned of and remedied the issue when he met another set of people using a similar ability. After learning from their teachings, Kirou then explored a few more options and eventually created a method of his own.

After memories briefly flashed through Kirou's mind, Kirou took out an item from his inventory and threw it at the fifteen players down below. No one saw the item coming as it was camouflaged by the leaves of the tree but everyone noticed when it took effect.

All the members of the group were inflicted with the paralysis status effect. It wasn't known who first realized it but when he did he immediately informed the rest. When everyone realized they couldn't move, Kirou tossed another item from his inventory at them. This time, everyone in the group saw it coming. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't do anything about it.

As soon the item neared the center of the group from above, Kirou fired a charged shot from one of his gunblade tonfas at it. This resulted in an explosion that directly killed off half of the group while fire rained down on the rest. The other members started burning and with the paralysis status still in effect, they were unable to do anything about it.

As they were losing health, a chain swiftly extricated one of the members from the group. That person was Phantom Fiend. His body, still paralyzed, was hoisted in front of a certain tree. When the members of the group followed with their eyes, they noticed a man with a blank expression on his face and wintry eyes staring at them. This caused all of them to feel an icy chill creep up their spines. One member even wondered how that was possible when all of them were currently on fire.

With Phantom Fiend brought before him, Kirou turned his eyes away from the group and stared at the man himself. This caused the man to unconsciously shiver and stutter out, "Wha....what do you.. you want?"

Looking at him with dead eyes, Kirou cared not for his stutter and spoke in an even voice to the terrified man, "Consider what happened today a warning. I have no interest in dealing with other players like this, to begin with. And I'd rather not have to do so again, especially with your guild. Do I make myself clear?"

Looking at his blank face with those icy cold eyes and feeling the bone-chilling aura from his words caused Phantom Fiend to feel extreme fear. While he consciously knew that this was a game, those eyes made him feel as if he was staring Death in the face and this caused him to nod profusely. He swore in his heart that he would avoid this person like the plague from now on.

"Good. Now you have my permission..... to die." Following Kirou's words, a few more chains wrapped around Phantom Fiend's body, his limbs, then ripped him apart. He faded away in lights in front of Kirou and the members of the Fiend Guild that were still alive saw it all. After which, they too started fading away.

Seeing that all of them were dead, Kirou let out a deep breath before sinking into the shadows of the tree he was on. While all of this was going on, he never noticed the system messages he had received.

[Generating skill...]

[Skill generated: Mana Control]

[Generating skill...]

[Skill generated: Chain Manipulation]

[Generating skill...]

[Skill generated: Demonic Gaze]